One of the things that REALLY excites me about wedding planning is the associated DIY projects! I *love* crafts and the wedding is perfect motivation to tackle new DIY projects.

Before you start thinking “martha stewart”, I should mention: although I love being all crafty, I kinda…well…let’s just say I am kinda “DIY Challenged” (and that’s putting it mildly!). Which should prove for some entertaining blog posts on DIY projects! lol.

Luckily, I have two factors that I think will help me to find success for our DIY wedding:
1) I am starting early. I cannot stress this enough! I am just NOT a good enough crafter to be working on projects at the last-minute, and I know the main thing I can do to reduce wedding-jitters is to be organized and have crafts *done*. (Sidenote: are you laughing at me, mom? You know I am a last-minute-gal. But, hey- I have good intentions! lol)
2) I have help! I haven’t started black-mailing my friends into helping me yet (Oh, but I will! You are warned.), but my family has already pitched in a ton. Luckily, I have the BEST sisters who have not only volunteered to help, but they actually have the crafting gene that somehow skipped me.

Which brings me to our first DIY wedding project! My youngest sister Alyssa, who also doubles as Maid of Honor #1 (yes, I have 2!), found instructions for DIY scratch-off tickets on weddingbee and decided to create a prototype. While the original scratch-off ticket instructions are super nice & clear, I appreciate Alyssa’s insights into the process and hopefully you will too!

Step One, preparing your ticket: Alyssa attempted this project without laminating film and found it to be quite impossible. The laminating film add a weight and surface for people to “scratch”. And as a bonus, if you use laminating film then the actual weight of the paper isn’t so important. For this prototype, Alyssa used a heavy stock printer paper.

You can see below that Alyssa simply wrote a message on this prototype ticket, but for the real deal we plan to print messages on the scratch-offs. (Stay tuned for a template of what we end up using!) After your ticket message is prepared (on paper that is tested & approved!), use laminating film to cover the section you want folks to “scratch off”.

Prepare your message.

Alyssa used sticky-back laminating film to cover the scratch-off area.

Laminated Ticket, ready for paint.

Step Two, mix it up: Mix 1 part soap with 2 parts paint. (ex. 1 tsp soap, 2 tsp paint) Alyssa did end up adding more paint to obtain a more intense color- she suggests tapping into your “painter instinct” to get the right ratio. Since I don’t have that instinct, I suggest practice. 😉

Mix it up!

Step Three, painting: Paint the plastic surface of your ticket, being sure to cover the surface completely! The paint will become less translucent as it dries, but you may need to do two coats.

Paint

cover completly

Step Four, fun!: After the paint has dried, have fun!

Dry

Scratch off!

Armed with these instructions, I feel like this is a project even I can tackle! Were you ever intimidated by a DIY project? What tips do you have for getting started?